Roasted Hazelnut and Prune Bread

I didn’t bake bread for more than 2 months now. I’m happy to see that my natural yeast is still alive. I fed it three times before baking the bread (including preparing the stiff levain build) and on the second time it became several times bigger .. wow.. it must be starved : P

The recipe is from Jeffrey Hamelman’s “Bread”, my second time to bake the bread. It calls for both bread flour (I used King Arthur All Purpose Flour) and whole wheat flour. However I found out my whole wheat flour was expired just when I wanted to prepare the dough, hence I replaced it with Bob’s Red Mill’s Dark Rye (the other flour I only had).

The texture of the bread is tighter than using whole wheat. Also the taste of rye was not strong enough. Maybe I should use rye sourdough instead of white one if I have it? Or ferment the dough for longer time without the commercial yeast? Anyway the original version with whole wheat flour does taste very good, especially the roasted hazelnut and prune, the deep flavor is good to enjoy in autumn. There is also 5% butter in the bread, which makes it softer and more flavourful. My baked bread always have darker crust, but I like it this way. : )